POOR iPhone users. Apple has kept you captive for too long. It’s time to make the switch. Here are the reasons you need to wake up to the Android revolution.

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

News Corp AustraliaJuly 17, 201411:07am

POOR Apple iPhone users. It must be a hard life.

Stuck in a system offering just one screen size. Bereft of fresh hardware or smartwatches. Monetarily invested in apps which are free elsewhere. Nary a widget nor an NFC connection a to rub together.

Perhaps we could set up a support group for them?

It could be called Google Android.

EFTM blogger Trevor Long recently wrote of his sad iPhone dependence, his body surrounded by contemporary innovation yet his mind unable to break free of Apple’s closed system.

Naively, he offered Google advice about their software, the open system now running a great majority of the world’s phones.

Oh, how quaint. Larry Page will surely get right on that, when he stops guffawing.

Allow me to address Long’s overlong list while Page composes himself.

Responsiveness

Devices sometimes get sluggish, Long says. Imagine how frustrating this must be on an iPhone. While Android devices are loaded with up to 3GB RAM, iPhones are stuck with 1GB. While Android users can close open apps with one button press and the tap of an icon, Apple users must double-tap the home button and swipe each open app upwards. Ouch.

Pop Ups

Long can’t handle choice. He doesn’t like it when apps ask him to nominate a default photo app. All he’d have to do to overcome this is choose Gallery as the default once. It would take two taps of his finger. Challenging? He’d spend more time looking for a power point to charge his oft-depleted iPhone.

Play Store

Long can’t be allowed in a store by himself. He wants to be guided around the store. Perhaps that’s why Google introduced categories. Perhaps it’s why Google introduced Editor’s Picks and shows recommendations from your friends. Perhaps that’s why you can search apps and download them to your Android phone using the Play Store website alone. Can’t do that with Apple’s App Store. Darn.

App Design

Long doesn’t like how apps look on his Android phone. I don’t know. I suspect the Samsung Galaxy S5’s Super AMOLED screen with superior brightness might have blinded him to the obvious. Google Android apps tend to have more customisations, helped by menu icons that allow users to use the apps as they wish.

Long also asks for an “open” platform at one point, and yet he’s returning to a closed system. It’s hard to watch a man repeat a mistake.

Let’s take a moment to remind him of five improvements Apple should make to the iPhone to give it a chance against the world’s biggest phone software.

The top iPhone offers a 4-inch screen, which is just adorable. In an industry where the standard looks like a 5-inch display or larger, Apple’s narrow offering is too narrow. The iPhone screen was great in 2007, certainly, but all that squinting is causing wrinkles today.

Battery life

You can tell an iPhone user by their intimate knowledge of power point locations. The iPhone 5S battery is rated at 1560mAh. The HTC One M8 has a 2600mAh battery. Even with a larger screen to light, that’s a lot of time the latter device will spend actually being mobile.

Wearable technology

Want a smartwatch to deliver notifications to your arm? Don’t we all? The Pebble will work with iOS but most others will not. You’ll have to wait for Apple’s iWatch, the Snuffleupagus of the tech world, often talked about but never seen. It could be released later this year or never.

NFC and wireless charging

Nokia is beating Apple with this technology. Nokia. Most high-end Android phones now offer NFC connectivity — the kind that will let you connect to a speaker or pay for something with a tap — and have been for some time. Apple iPhone users have to buy a special case or a special sticker to get the same result.

A better camera

Want a 20-megapixel monster in your petite pocket? You can have it with Android. Hey, you can even have it with Windows Phone. Not so with the iPhone. That goes for 4K video recording too.

iPhone 6 images leaked0:30

Tech reporter Harry Tucker explains the latest rumours on the soon to be released Apple iPhone 6.

As ever, the iPhone offers excellent app choice, its notifications are getting more accessible, its upcoming iOS 8 software will let you change its keyboard for the first time, and its Retina screens are excellent on the eye.

And there’s one thing that Apple does really well: it locks unadventurous technology users into one system.

Cautious, near captive technology buyers invest in Apple’s ecosystem because they fear other technology will not work for them.

Let me reassure you that you can have Android and Apple devices in the one home. Hey, I have them in the same handbag. They will work together. They will give you options.

Don’t feel trapped. Don’t go back to your captor. Live a little. And don’t reward a lazy approach to technology.